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NHL Picks

Bet Bruins -130 over Canadiens in Game 4

Ross Benjamin has gone 5-0 the last 3-days, and
11-2 with his last 13 Stanley Cup Playoff selections right here at SBR. Tonight
he has an NHL free pick in the Boston and Montreal Game 4 clash.

Pivotal
Game 5 Bruins versus CanadiensThe
Canadiens host the Bruins on Thursday at the Belle Centre in Montreal, Quebec,
Canada with the opening face-off slated for 7:35 PM ET. This will be Game 4 of
their Eastern Conference Semifinal series in which Montreal leads 2-1.
According to NHL betting odds Boston
is a -130 money line road favorite and the posted total is 5.0. Montreal has
defeated Boston is 8 of their last 10 meetings. These clubs have seen just 1 of
their last 6 head-to-head encounters stay under the total.

[gameodds]7/284407/?r3=43-19-349/dec&r-1=43-19-349/us[/gameodds]

No Time to
Panic for the BruinsIt’s
as close to a must game for the Bruins tonight than they would’ve hoped for at
this juncture. They can ill afford to lose tonight and fall into a 3-1 hole in
the series. That occurrence certainly wouldn’t be an insurmountable deficit for
a team the caliber of Boston, but the odds would certainly be stacked against
them. The Bruins will also look to avoid a deficit of 2-goals or more tonight,
which they’ve encountered in each of the first 3-games of this series. They
were able to storm back in Game 2 of the series by scoring 4 answered goals in
the final 10 minutes of the 3rd period to escape for a 5-3 win.
However, having to continually fight back from 2-goal deficits in the Stanley
Cup Playoffs is more times than not a recipe for disaster. On a positive note,
Boston has outshot the Canadiens in this series by a combined 114-87.

Counting
on Rask to Play BigThe
Bruins will be counting on Tuukka Rask to step up his game. Rask has been less
than stellar so far in this series posting a below average .884 save
percentage. Rask was terrific in the Bruins opening round win against Detroit,
especially in the last 4-games of that series when he allowed just 3-goals, and
posted a brilliant .972 save percentage. Boston has gone just 2-6 in their last
8 road games. The Bruins have gone over the total in 11 of 13 road games this
season when facing a division opponent.

The Price
is RightThe
Canadiens have to be elated by the play of their star goaltender Carey Price,
who’s arguably put together a career year to this point. Price has gone 6-1 so
far this postseason with a rock solid .912 save percentage. Price enters
tonight having gone 17-4 in his last 21 starts while posting an outstanding
.932 save percentage in those outings. Price was also the #1 goaltender on Team
Canada’s 2014 gold medal winning team in Sochi.

Primed for
the Upset of a Bitter RivalThe
Canadiens know with a win tonight they can take a firm hold of the series, and
put the #1 seed overall in the NHL Playoffs on the brink of elimination. The
flip side of that equation is a loss would find the series tied at 2-2 heading
back to Boston, and Montreal will have also surrendered home ice advantage in
doing so. This is a Canadiens team which is playing with a lot of confidence
right now, and going back to the end of the regular season has gone 17-5 in
their previous 22-games. Montreal has scored 26-goals in 7 playoff games, and
has scored 3 or more in all 7. Montreal has gone a dismal 6-18 at home the last
3 seasons following a game in which they scored 4-goals or more.

Final
AnalysisThere’s
a ton of character and veteran leadership in that Bruins dressing room. The
core group of this team has been to the Stanley Cup Finals twice in the past 3
postseasons, and won’t be rattled when facing adversity at this time of the
year. I look for Boston to play their best game of the 2014 playoffs thus far
in tonight’s game.